Shoot First Eat Later

Around Middleburg, Va

After lunch at The Fox Hound we walked around Middleburg and did some window shopping.

The first stop was Home Farm, a traditional butcher shop.

Home Farm

No frozen meat here. Everything was fresh and chilled.

Bacon donuts anyone?

The Christmas Sleigh specialized in German and Austrian products.

The Christmas Sleigh

I just had to go in the sosy pet store called Wylie Wagg.

Wylie Wagg

Was I right? Sosy talaga!

Créme de la Créme carried French linens, cutlery, pottery, stationery and some of the most fragrant lotions I’ve ever tried.

Creme de la Creme

If I’m a coffee addict then my cousin La is a wine addict or should I say connoisseur. She has to have wine with every meal and can’t pass by a wine bar without trying a new kind of wine. Just like I am with coffee.

The Tasting Room Wine Bar

She tried a glass of wine from Boxwood Estate, a local winery based in Middleburg.

As much as I wanted to try coffee from Cuppa Giddy Up I was too full from lunch.

Cuppa Giddy Up

Besides I got distracted by this cute dog with a jockey strapped on his back.

dog jockey

Isn’t it absolutely cute?

Our last stop was the Chrysalis Vineyards. We didn’t have any wine tasting but just looked around the property.

Chrysalis Vineyards

They had a picnic area open to the public. Since the weather was really nice there were a couple of families enjoying themselves with a picnic.

Their store sold these Spanish tortas which we really love to eat with cheese. They remind me our own otap. They have a similar crisp and flaky texture and is also sweet but with a savory flavor too.

Ines Rosales Sweet Olive Oil Tortas

Middleburg is a really nice place to visit. The town has really quaint shops and and it’s close enough for a day trip.

Home Farm Store
1 E. Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687 – 8882

The Christmas Sleigh, Inc.
5A East Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-3665

Wylie Wagg
5B East Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-8727

Crème de la Crème
23 East Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-8360

The Tasting Room and Wine Bar
16 East Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-8080

Cuppa Giddy Up
8 East Washington Street, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-8122

Chrysalis Vineyards
23876 Champe Ford Road, Middleburg, VA 20117
telephone: (540) 687-8222

Brunch at The Fox Hound

I arrived in Virginia early in the morning. After unpacking and some breakfast we drove to Middleburg, Virginia.

Only half an hour from our location the area felt like I stepped back in time.

This is my cousin Lanneth with her hubby Chee and kids Ethan and Erin. She was my host for more than two weeks.

Even the market was so charming.

For lunch we ate at The French Hound.

The escargot was very soft and not salty. The butter sauce was very garlicky with a grassy after taste from the parsley and basil. I’m sure bread dipped in the butter garlic sauce was fantastic.

les escargot $9

My cousin La loves duck. As soon as I saw it on the menu I knew that’s what she would order. We’re all actually quite predictable. Boring huh?

confit de canard $13

My nephew Ethan is a meat and potatoes guy. He’s lucky I don’t eat potatoes anymore. I used to be his nemesis with fries. As a matter of fact it was Ethan who taught me to love fries.

steak frites – onglet $15

I love the words ‘pot pie’ and teamed with ‘truffled lobster’ it was an easy choice for me. I just didn’t anticipate so much cream sauce.

hommard $16

I picked out all the yummy lobster and ate the flaky puff pastry and gave the rest of the veggies and sauce to Chee.

I call my niece Erin, “my little gourmand”. She just turned 10 but she loves smoked salmon.

smoked salmon eggs benedict $12

My cousin in law, Chee ordered a light omelette for lunch. He was smart to order something light because he knew he had to eat what anyone couldn’t finish. True enough he ate half of Erin’s smoked salmon eggs benedict and all the peas and sauce I left from my dish. He enjoyed sopping up the sauce with bread though.

asparagus & goat’s cheese omelette $10

I found the chocolate torte too sweet and the chocolate wasn’t dark and rich enough for me. Erin happily ate my share.

le torte au chocolat $8

Ending a meal with illy coffee is always a good thing.

illy coffee

brunch specials

The French Hound’s menu (click to enlarge)

The French Hound
101 N. Madison St, Middleburg, VA 20117, USA
telephone: (540) 687-3018

Recipes by Cafe Metro

Let me interrupt my posts on my recent trip to the US with this local restaurant I treated my office mates to last September for my birthday. I don’t know how I missed posting these pictures.

The first time I tried Recipes several years ago was at SM Mega Mall. My friend Rizette treated us there for her birthday. I loved the food so much I told all my friends about it. This was long before I had a blog. I brought all the balikbayans there and they all loved it. There was a time I ate at Recipes up to five times a month. Can you guess what happened? I got tired of eating the same food over and over again so I stopped cold turkey.

When I found out that they opened a branch at Shrangri-La mall I felt it was time to go back to my old friend and renew acquaintances.

We ordered almost all of their specialties.

Recipes by Cafe Metro menu (click to enlarge)

The servings were small which I didn’t mind since that gave me an excuse to order more dishes. I prefer eating a smaller amount of food with more variety.

Gising gising was made with chopped green beans with ground pork in a delicious coconut based sauce. It was everyone’s favorite.

gising gising P170

The kare kare was not the best I’ve eaten but it wasn’t bad at all. The sauce was thick and peanuty but I found their bagoong too salty.

kare kare P338

At least there was ox tail in their kare kare even though there wasn’t as much as I would have wanted.

ox tail

An order of prawns aligue yielded only 3 pieces. The prawns were a good size and the aligue (crab fat) sauce was good. I can’t believe I ate all these food without rice. The sauce would have been awesome on rice.

prawns with aligue P310

My new favorite was the general’s tofu. Fried tofu squares topped with their sweet and spicy sauce. I could have finished an order all by myself.

general’s tofu P135

General’s tofu was a new dish inspired by their famous general’s chicken. Crunchy fried chicken and eggplant with the same sweet, spicy sauce. This is one of their most popular dish.

general’s chicken P215

Yes almost everything was fried!!! But I must say they do a good job with frying. The oil is fresh and the food isn’t greasy. Although the fried beef ribs were a bit tough.

crispy tadyang P248

The crispy tilapia is another dish that I always order and it never fails to please everyone. It was at Recipes that I first tried this dish. Today almost all Filipino restaurants serve this. But still they do it best. It was really crispy and not greasy.

crispy tilapia P215

The sad, thin, over fried pieces of pork belly was the most disappointing dish of all. The adobong kang kong was good though.

lechon kawali with kang kong P215

buko pandan with ice cream P90

I’m happy to rediscover Recipes again. The food quality hasn’t changed. They still serve good, Filipino comfort food. The next time I go back I will make a conscious effort to try new dishes but it will be hard since I always want to order the tried and tested dishes. I heartily recommend this restaurant.

Recipes by Cafe Metro
5th Floor Shangri-La Plaza Mall
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila
Philippines
telephone: 637-4050
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Napa Farms Market @ SFO’s Terminal 2

I wanted to be at the San Francisco Airport’s Terminal 2 early for my flight to Washington DC on Virgin America so I could leisurely walk around and look for something to eat. Unfortunately the line was long and I had to drop off my luggage.

It was a good thing I saw Napa Farms Market right away and to my immense joy I had a last chance to try another coffee, this time Equator Coffee. This brand never came up in my research for coffee places to try in San Francisco so I didn’t know anything about it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how rich and strong the drip mocha java was. It had a very good aroma and full body. I was so tempted to buy another bag of beans.

Buying lunch at Tyler Florence Rotisserie was a no brainer. Since I didn’t have time to eat at Tyler Florence’s Rotisserie and Wine at Napa Valley, this was the next best thing.

I ordered the 1/4 chicken with 2 sides. I chose to have two servings of Berkley greens with French vinaigrette instead of the breaded mac & cheese or potato salad. I was tempted to get the roasted porchetta instead of the chicken but I’m not supposed to eat pork on my diet so chicken was my only option. There was a variety of sauces that accompanied the chicken like tomato jam which the server recommended by I went with honey dijon.

The chicken was so tender and flavorful all the way to the bone. It didn’t need any sauce. I suspect the chicken was brined before roasting that’s why the chicken breast was so moist and tasty. Amazingly there wasn’t any fat left under the chicken skin. Even though the chicken wasn’t hot anymore the skin remained crisp. I was very full and remained satisfied all through my five hour plus trip to DC.

1/4 chicken with Berkely greens & French vinaigrette $12.50

The other vendors in Napa Farms Market were Cowgirl Creamery, Vino Volo, Acme Bread, Kara’s Cupcakes, and Three Twins Ice Cream.

I was able to buy a couple of wedges of Truffle Tremor cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. If I wasn’t so full and in a hurry I would have bought a cup of chocolate orange confetti ice cream from Three Twins Ice Cream.

I wasn’t able to take more pictures of Napa Farms Market because I was in a hurry to catch my flight. Click here to see how it really looks.

There was a special counter where you can fill up your water bottle just before going to your gate. It had a tall spout which made it easy to fill up my Vapur bottle. I wish I took a picture of that. It was really convenient instead of using the water fountains common in other airports.

I’m sure many laptop and cellphone users appreciated these convenience outlets instead of sitting on the floor beside what few outlets that could be found in the airport. I’m proud to say we’ve have this in feature in Manila’s airports for several years already. Although it doesn’t look this spiffy.

Goodbye San Francisco! It was a short visit but very, very sweet indeed. Thanks again to Ariel, Kit and Jeanne for keeping me company. Coming up are my posts on Virginia, DC, New York and Los Angeles. Keep on checking my blog for updates!

Contraband Coffee Bar

With only four and a half days in San Francisco and so many coffee places to try I was lucky enough to sample some of the best in the city. I’ve been to Blue Bottle Coffee, Sightglass Coffee Roasters and Ritual Coffee Roasters. On my last night I was able to get the chance to try the newest coffee in town, Contraband Coffee Bar.

Just like many other coffee places a large communal table dominated the space.

Contraband Coffee Bar’s menu

I bought a bag of Yemen Mocha Haraazi which my cousin and I thoroughly enjoyed in Virginia.

Contraband Coffee’s bean selection

The always present drip-over filters, this time perched on shiny stainless steel.

I’ve always wanted to try a mocha since I read other stores used specialty chocolate ganache mixed with espresso and milk. At Contraband they used Ghirardelli cocoa powder mixed with water to make their chocolate sauce.

I was really disappointed with my mocha. The drink tasted like mild chocolate milk. There was barely any coffee that I could taste. It needed an extra shot of espresso or two. Next time I’ll stick to my usual drip-over coffee.

mocha $4

Contraband Coffee Bar
1415 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA

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La Boulange Bakery

I love French pastries and I swore I wouldn’t eat any since I was on a diet but La Boulange Bakery was right there in front of me. I was just going to Loehmann’s in Sutter Street. How should I know that next door was a bakery filled with temptation.

Just to prove to you I had no intention of going to a bakery on my last day in San Francisco I didn’t bring my camera. All these pictures were shot using my iPhone 4s.

This was the first (and the last) time I saw cannelés so I had to buy one and try it. I guess they’re not popular since the lady behind me asked me what they were. I just told her to try it since they’re good.

I actually wanted to try the allumettes and lunette too since it was my first time to see those.

I really, really wanted one of those quiche too.

In the end I bought a cannelé, a morning bun and an almond croissant. I just ate the cannelé and brought the two other pastries with me to Virginia so I can share them with my cousin.

cannelés $1.75

The cannelé had a chewy exterior and a soft and dense interior. It had a nice caramel flavor that wasn’t too sweet. In Manila, Gourmet Finds makes the best cannelé. Click on the link for ordering information so you can try cannelé for yourself.

Morning buns are made from croissant dough and are very flaky.

orange & cinnamon morning bun $2.50

Here are the goodies we reheated for breakfast the next day in Virginia. The morning bun was ok. Not really my favorite.

My cousin and I loved the flaky almond croissant. There was lots of almond filling inside and it had just the right amount of sweetness.

almond croissant $2.75

Since my cousin’s hubby works in San Francisco and comes home to Virginia for the weekend he brought us more goodies from La Boulange. He bought a pecan sticky roll which I never got to try since somebody ate it really quick :D.

He also bought a chocolate hazelnut croissant but we still prefer the almond croissant. The fourth was a raisin custard swirl which I also didn’t get to try. I was surprised at my willpower. A little taste was good enough for me.

I’m glad I went in La Boulange Bakery. Their pastries are really good. I will definitely try their food and salads the next time I go back to San Francisco.

La Boulange Bakery
222 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94108

Off The Grid: Food Trucks at Fort Mason Center

Food trucks are really popular in the USA specially in San Francisco. I didn’t think I would be able to eat at one considering my short stay in the city.

After dropping off my luggage at the Marriott hotel Kit surprised me by saying we were going to Fort Mason Center where all the food trucks were for the Off The Grid event. I was so happy!

All the food trucks were parked around a big lot. I was really excited to look at each and every food truck and I wasn’t going to let the low lighting hamper my picture taking. It was really cold and it was drizzling a bit but I didn’t care. My only problem was I still felt full from lunch hours ago at Morimoto in Napa. I really couldn’t understand how I wasn’t hungry amidst all the food choices.

Curry Up Now

Some food trucks had long lines while others had none. I decided to walk around and see if something would stimulate my appetite.

Folding chairs were scattered in the middle of the space for people to sit and eat.

One of the food trucks that had a long line was Señor Sisig, a Filipino food truck featuring, what else but sisig! I was surprised that mostly Americans were in the line. I wonder if they really knew what sisig was. But I guess they just liked the taste.

Señor Sisig

It was actually smart of them to introduce sisig (a Filipino dish made from parts of pig’s head and liver, usually seasoned with calamansi and chili peppers. Wikipedia) in a more common vessel like tacos, burritos, fries and nachos. It’s a good thing they also offer it with rice because that’s how we Filipinos like to eat it.

I wish we tried the green mango and bagoong ice cream! I wonder what that tastes like?

Señor Sisig’s menu

Ariel ordered the sisig nachos and since I just LOVE nachos I tried some. With one bite suddenly my appetite roared and screamed, “give me more nachos!”

Putting sisig on nachos is really ingenious. The sisig was so flavorful that it really held it’s own in the amalgam of Mexican spices, toppings and sauces. The sisig felt so at home with all it’s Mexican cousins and you would think this combination has been around for ages. I really, really loved it! No wonder Señor Sisig was voted best food truck by several San Francisco publications.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see copycats in Manila soon. Maybe there are some already!

sisig nachos $8

Since I ate almost half of Ariel’s nachos he bought a sandwich from another Filipino food truck, HapaSF. I tried a bit of the chicken adobo and found the flavor lacking. It was neither salty nor sour. I guess the other ingredients in the sandwich made up for it.

HapaSF’s chicken adobo bahn mi

Koja Kitchen had lcd screens for menus! I was really tempted to buy the bulgogi salad if I not for the sisig nachos which made me so full already.

Koja Kitchen

The Taco Guys

Kasa Indian Eatery

Kasa’s menu

The food truck with the longest line that never went away was Cuptakes.

Cupkates

I’m not a cupcake girl so I would never fall in line to buy one but Kit swears by these goodies so he patiently waited his turn. He was kind enough to let me take a bite of his raspberry lemon cupcake.

The mini cupcake was quite expensive at $3 but I was amazed at the dense pound cake like texture of the cupcake. It was so moist and unlike any cupcake I’ve ever tasted before. I wasn’t impressed with the icing though. It lacked both raspberry and lemon flavors. I was imagining something tart instead it was just blah.

lemon raspberry cupcake $3

Live entertainment!

the creme brûlée cart

The sign made me laugh – zero calorie huh?

They were kind enough to let me take a picture without buying one.

vanilla bean creme brûlée $4

El Huarache Loco menu

El Porteno menu

I wanted to try the empanada too but Kit said they weren’t very good. I believed him since there wasn’t anyone buying when I took the picture. I really love empanadas though.

El Porteno empanadas

Happy Dumplings had long lines too.

Happy Dumplings

Maybe because of the cheap eats?

Happy Dumplings menu

A guy who just got his dumplings allowed me to take a picture. He even posed the siracha sauce at the back.

fried dumplings

Brass Knuckle sold creative sandwiches and was one of the more popular trucks.

Brass Knuckle’s menu

Kit bought the Cuban sandwich made with roast pork, ham, swiss cheese on a waffle. I was too full to even take a bite but he said it was just average. Nothing really great.

notorious pig $5

The cheese fries topped with Guinness short ribs and bacon crackles looked more tempting to me so I quickly snapped a picture of a guy’s order. (Nahiya ako humingi ng isang fries ;p)

I swear the people of San Francisco are so nice letting me take pictures of their food. I bet they were wondering what the nut in the red trench coat was up to?

occupy fries SF $5

Since the sandwiches were small Kit bought another one from 3-Sum Eats.

3-Sum Eats menu

I took a teeny weeny bite of the chicken. Ok but not flavorful enough. Crispy though.

rice crispies fried chicken sandwich $7

Can you guess what I bought?

3-Sum Eats dessert menu

Can you believe this was the only truck that sold cookies? It was freakin’ huge!! Much bigger than my big hand. The cookie lasted til breakfast.

It had a nice butterscotch flavor and wasn’t so sweet which I really liked. I loved the textures from the pretzels, coconut and potato chips. This started my new appreciation for ‘mixed identity’ cookies. Yuuummmm!!!

kitchen sink cookies $3.50

homemade twinkies

I really loved my first food truck experience! I only wish I went there ravenously hungry but I was quite satisfied with the things I ate and tried. It was the best last dinner in San Francisco. Thanks again Ariel and Kit!!!

Be sure to check the schedule and location for the Off the Grid events. They have several markets in different cities. I was just lucky that they had it at Fort Mason when I was there.

Fort Mason Center
Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 38 Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA

Marriott Hotel, Union Square, San Francisco

After my quick overnight trip to Napa Valley, we returned to San Francisco and I checked in to another hotel. This time I stayed in the newly renovated Marriott Hotel in Union Square.

I love staying in hotels so I don’t really mind all the packing and unpacking. And since my friend Ariel works in this hotel I knew he would give me a really nice room.

Upon entering the room I couldn’t find any light switch by the door. The only switch was at this ‘coffee bar’ near the door.

The large bathroom was right across the entrance. They used a sliding door which was a good idea to save space.

The counter was very wide.

The dual flush toilet sat all alone in the corner of the big bathroom.

At the other end of the room was the tub. I wish they had a separate shower stall like the one at The Lodge at Sonoma. I prefer a shower stall over a shallow tub any day. Well if it was a deep Jacuzzi tub then that’s another matter.

I liked their Bath and Body Works toiletries in orange ginger scent.

I got a huge king sized bed with ultra comfy bedding. I always get a good night’s sleep whenever I stay at a Marriott hotel.

I was pleasantly surprised and delighted with the turn down service and the chocolates left on my bed. Not many hotels offer turn down service anymore.

Small yet highly appreciated touches were added to the room like this LED reading light.

All hotel rooms should have an iPhone radio dock, don’t you think?

The best were these convenient outlets located just behind the radio. No need to look for outlets behind tables.

My favorite was these outlets on the desk. There were 4 outlets!! It was more than enough to charge my cellphone, iPad, camera battery and laptop all at the same time.

At the Hotel Nikko I had to use my Monster travel power strip which was connected to outlet at the back of the table near the floor. It was quite inconvenient.

The desk could also be pulled back for two people to share. Neat feature!

I had a corner room!

These are the views from my two windows.

hotel lobby

As usual staying at a Marriott hotel was a pleasure. The staff at the front desk were friendly and very helpful. The Filipino doorman helped me with my luggage and the shuttle to the airport.

There were two computers at the ground floor for checking in and printing of boarding passes. My only pet peeve was no free wifi. Good thing there was free wifi in many places outside the hotel.

San Francisco Marriott Union Square
480 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 94108 USA
Phone: 1-415-398-8900
Fax: 1-415-989-8823
Sales: 1-415-273-4000
Sales fax: 1-415-398-5981
Toll-free: 1-866-912-0973

Corison Winery and Cakebread Cellars

We visited two more wineries in Napa Valley before going back to San Francisco. The first stop was Corison Winery where we were greeted by this friendly labrador.

Kit took this picture on his cellphone. We sat there playing with the dog for a few minutes before going in the winery. I could have stayed there longer but the dog ran inside so I followed her. I suddenly missed my own labradors.

The oak barrels were stacked in the tasting room for a very nice ambiance.

She was so excited to play with the kid that she started to ‘nibble’ on peoples’ legs and was distracting the wine tasting. She was asked to leave and I was surprised to find out that she was the neighbor’s dog. She just loved visiting Corison Winery from time to time.

We went out the back and looked at the beautiful vineyard.

Corison Winery tasting menu

Our next stop was Cakebread Cellars. Kit called in advance to make an appointment for our wine tasting.

This guy told us that Cakebread Cellars wines are available in Manila and I found out that it is distributed by Happy Living Philippines Corporation which also distributes Chateau Montelana wines which we also visited.

They gave us the glasses we used for wine tasting to take home as a souvenir.

That’s the end of my trip to Napa Valley. Thanks again to my friends Ariel and Kit for taking me there. I really enjoyed all the restaurants we ate at and even though I can’t drink wine for the moment I appreciated going to the wineries too.

Kit and Ariel

Corison Winery
987 St. Helena Highway, Saint Helena, CA 94574
telephone: (707) 963-0826

Cakebread Cellars
8300 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford, CA 94573
telephone:(800) 588-0298

Oxbow Public Market

I’m not an “ice cream” kind of girl. I’m more of the “coffee and cookies” type. After lunch at Morimoto, we went to Oxbow Public Market for my coffee from Ritual Roasters. I only wanted coffee but Kit knew my weakness for anything ‘chocolate orange‘ and he let me try the ice cream he bought.

Funny but Kit and Ariel haven’t been to Oxbow Public Market in all the times they’ve visited Napa Valley. So it was a first time for all of us.

Three Twins ice cream was right across Ritual Coffee Roasters.

While I was waiting for my coffee to finish dripping, Kit bought a scoop of chocolate orange confetti and let me try a spoonful. I tried it without knowing what flavor it was.

As soon as the ice cream hit my tongue I moaned in ecstasy. It was the most intense chocolate flavor with the most intense and sharpest orange flavor in the richest, creamiest ice cream I’ve ever eaten. EVER!!! Forget my diet. As soon as I finished my coffee I immediately bought a scoop all for myself. Even Ariel couldn’t stop raving about my ice cream since he bought strawberry while Kit was more adventurous with his ‘dad’s cardamom’ ice cream. My chocolate orange confetti was the best!!!

True to their claim, Three Twins Ice Cream was inconceivably delicious!

Three Twins Chocolate Orange Confetti Ice Cream

We walked around Oxbow Market while eating ice cream and I took pictures of the stores and eateries there.

Pica Pica Bar

Oxbow Produce and Grocery

Kit said these lemon pita chips were really good.

I really liked the mix of tenants in Oxbow Market. Ca’ Momi occupied a big space since it had wine, pizza and Italian pastries all in one store.

After taking a picture of these tempting sweets I quickly walked away to avoid temptation.

Right after walking away from Italian pastries I walked next to Anette’s Chocolates and hyperventilated for a few minutes.

Anette’s Chocolates

Tillerman Tea

Some of the stores in Oxbow can be also found at San Francisco’s Ferry Building that’s because the founder of Oxbow used to be the project manager of the Ferry Building.

The Olive Press

Five Dot Ranch

Whole Spice Company

Oxbow Cheese Merchant

Kara’s Cupcakes

I saw compost bins in several places in the US. A lot of their food containers just like the ones we used at Addendum are compostable. I’m sure those containers are expensive so I don’t think we’ll see those in the Philippines any time soon. But composting of food waste is something we can do right now.

We were pressed for time since we still had two wineries to go to before going back to San Francisco. I’ll definitely go back to Oxbow Public Market so I can walk leisurely, try some cheese and olive oil, buy a cup of coffee and two scoops of chocolate orange confetti ice cream.

Oxbow Public Market
610 First Street, Napa, California 94559
telephone: (707) 253-1190